Thanet Council's commitment to open government

Above you will see a copy of an advert, found on page 13 of last Friday's Gazette. Great open government at its best, it would appear that Thanet council have cocked up a 'planning matter', and as a result the ombudsman has found that an injustice has resulted due to maladministration.

As you can see copies will be made available, for inspection during normal office hours and the council apparently has to consider the report within three months, noting action to be taken etc etc.

Nothing could be clearer than this, except no details of the council's injustice, or any hint of their misdemeanour, so if you wanna know, you have to traipse down to the council offices in Cecil Street, during normal office hours (whatever that may be, my office hours are from 5:45am through to approximately 6:00pm).

The thing that annoys me, is I actually ignored this advertisement until today assuming this was some insignificant little notice, and part of Thanet District Councils generous advertising budget, which appears to be limitless (perhaps Richard Samuel TDC chief executive might wish to investigate as part of cost savings), if the council were in any way sincere or repentant for their sins, you might think that information concerning this matter whatever it is would be published on their website, unfortunately this is not the case.

Perhaps if you are Richard Samuel, or even our esteemed leader of the council Sandy Ezekiel, you could give us a hint as to what this is all about.

As many residents will realise, Thanet council over the years, has gained a reputation, for honesty, integrity, competence etc what a pity if this were now sullied, by sweeping this rare cock-up under the carpet, why deny working people such as myself, the opportunity to study this report, it is not possible for me to visit, the council offices in working time, therefore I will be unable to assess this matter personally, presumably the whole point of having a government of ombudsman, is to make local government accountable and honest.

Thanet council, should just bung a copy of this report on the Internet, otherwise it looks, as if they are trying to forget they are accountable to the public.